Questions on mindset and others

[julius.chin]

I am about to take the GMAT very soon. I have encountered a few problems in my practice.

I have set myself to do 20 questions on SC, CR, PS and DA, and 2 readings a day. On some days, due to time constraints, I do half.

I score more consistently in the verbal section. In my daily practice with the OG 12. I nailed the readings pretty well, and get no more than 6 questions wrong on my daily 40 question practice.

In school, I have always been very very strong in mathematics. Having left school for a while, but it seems I have lost my flair, and learned that I am particularly weak with inequalities and divisibility. My quant looks good. But once in a while, 2 out of 10 times of the daily 20 question practice, I get about 8 wrong. DA has not been as consistent as I aimed. On good days, I do quite well, comparable to the verbal results. On bad days, I don't know what happened.

I recently took the CAT test, and the results are not reflective of my daily practice.

I spend just the same amount of time per question on the OG practice as I do in the CAT tests.

Is it nerves? or the questions were more difficult?

In reviewing my results, I got all of the SC correct, except for one, which is good. But I seem to get a lot of the CR wrong, which is strange because I have always thought CR has always been my forte, my practice has reflective of this. Could it possibly be MGMAT's CR is harder than the ones from OG 12?

In time management, I also run out of time for quant section, but have more than 6 minutes left when I finished. The obvious solution is to slow down in verbal, and not to dwell too long in the quant section.

With regards to DA, a friend of mine told me whether if I have used a bce/ad technique. What is that?

I am getting increasingly concerned. My confidence is at a low. Please comment and advise.

Julius

[julius.chin]

New update:

After going through the answers and questions over and over again, I have narrowed my main weaknesses to:

1. pure carelessness. (in 1 or 2 cases, I even pressed the wrong answer even though I knew the answer)
2. Data sufficiency
Generally weak in inequalities, divisibility and probability. With inequalities, I still somehow don't seem to grasp what is constitutes as the right answer.
3. Questions requiring inference in RC and CR
4. Some math questions
There are moments I just don't understand what the question is asking me.
5. Time management in quant section. Didn't manage to finish the last 2 questions.

[StaceyKoprince]

Is it nerves? or the questions were more difficult?

Possibly there are some nerves. Possibly there are some time management issues. And, yes, the questions may have been more difficult - but not for the reason you might be thinking.

When you do practice questions from a book, you're choosing a static set of questions in advance; the difficulty levels are unrelated to your performance.

A CAT is a Computer ADAPTIVE test; it adapts itself to you as you take it. As you do better, the test gives you harder material. As such, you may have "earned" harder questions, on average, than you were giving yourself in your static sets of practice questions.

The first thing you need to do: log into your student center and read your copy of the e-book The GMAT Uncovered to learn how the test works. Pay particular attention to the section about scoring. (If you want, for now, you can skip the admissions part of the e-book.) Come back here if you have any questions.

I have set myself to do 20 questions on SC, CR, PS and DA, and 2 readings a day.

This doesn't sound good - this sounds like way too much. Split our study activities into two groups, "doing" and "analyzing." "Doing" is when we try new problems for the first time. "Analyzing" is when we analyze our performance on the problems we did and take the necessary steps to improve before we try doing more problems.

80+% of your learning comes from analyzing, not doing. You should be spending 3 to 4 times as long analyzing as doing. So, in one 2-hour study period, you might do 15 CR questions (total time 30 minutes) and then spend the remaining 1.5 hours analyzing those problems! According to what you typed above, you'd have to study 10+ hours a day in order to get through all of your analysis.

Start with this article; it explains how to analyze problems:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/a ... roblem.cfm

With regards to DA, a friend of mine told me whether if I have used a bce/ad technique. What is that?

(For others reading this who might be confused, the student is referring to Data Sufficiency, or DS, with the acronym DA.) The answer grid is a basic DS technique that we teach on the first day of our course and use on every single DS problem from then on. I can't, unfortunately, type up the whole lesson here; it would take too long. If you have access to tapes of our classes, you should watch the tape of class 1. If you don't, you should sign up to sit in on a class 1 for free. You should not take the real test without learning this lesson.

I'm going to discuss one more thing and then stop here for right now (until you reply). You mention that you're taking the test soon, but you don't mention your goal score or what you're scoring on your practice tests. I assume that you are not scoring what you'd like to be scoring, or you wouldn't be writing to us. :)

If you are not scoring on practice tests what you'd like to be scoring on the real test, and your real test is coming up soon (in the next couple of weeks), then you're going to need to postpone your practice test. If you'd like to give us some detail regarding yoru goal score and practice test scores, I can help to advise you on this point - and I think this is the first thing we need to decide / determine. After that, we can make some additional decisions and discuss methods of improvement in various areas, but for that, I need some more data on your goal score vs. your current scoring level.

Also, you mention some time management issues; try this article to start:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2009/12/ ... management

[julius.chin]

Hi Stacey,

Many thanks for your kind help.

I have decided to postpone my Gmat for another 2.5 weeks, and have made another appointment a little over a month after that.

I actually have taken the GMAT once, with minimal preparation. Time management was the main problem as I couldn't finish the last 5 questions on both verbal and quant. It really hurt me. Oddly, I got a 6 on the AWA. This was the consoling bit. The score was pretty bad and it haunts me at times.

My aims are:
Ideally - anything at or over 700
Realistically, mid to high 600s

My current CAT tests have been low 600s or borderline 600.
I have taken CAT tests 3 times, with 2 under full GMAT conditions. I paused 2 to 4 times on one of the tests because I was sick that day. But all three have been consistently at 600-630

I have gone back to problems that I recognize that are challenging, and have done analysis on the wrong questions or the ones I have found challenging. I have fully recognize where my general weaknesses lie. In my .

I have recently bought all the strategy guides, and found I have the most problems with number properties. This is probably because I have never been taught any short-cuts, as I have been brute forcing my way for many years. This stuff really helps.

In looking at my answers at the CAT scores, I notice that whenever I get a question wrong, the likeliness of me getting the next one or two wrong are high, even if they are questions at 300-500 slightly higher. Knowing at the GMAT scoring method from the GMAT uncovered article, I know this can be very deadly. I am not too sure why this happened. Will look into it again.

Again, I am baffled at CR, as I have been doing extremely well in this area in the OG practices.

My aim in the next 2 weeks is mainly focus on the number properties and a bit of probability, and focus on verbal as I am seem to be a much better performer in this area in my daily OG practice. I just need to find out why I am getting things (reading and CR) wrong when I clearly am doing well in practice.

In retrospect, I think I might be a bit burnt out too.

Thanks again.

[StaceyKoprince]

I notice that whenever I get a question wrong, the likeliness of me getting the next one or two wrong are high, even if they are questions at 300-500 slightly higher.

One thought. What's your timing like on these problems? Are you spending more time on the first one, and then speeding up a bit on the next in order to make up for it? And why are you getting these wrong? How many are a case of, "Oh, I just didn't know how to do that" vs "I can't believe I made that mistake! I knew how to do that!"

If the 2nd in the pair is more likely to be a careless mistake, and also more likely to be faster, then you might be creating the problem yourself by speeding up...

Again, I am baffled at CR, as I have been doing extremely well in this area in the OG practices.

CR is the hardest question type for test-writers to mimic, so if you are doing markedly better in OG on random, timed sets of questions that include higher-numbered questions, then don't freak out too much. :) You may want to take a GMATPrep CAT to make sure. Also, do make sure that the reason you're doing better on OG is not due to something such as timing, difficulty level, length of question set (stamina), etc. Ideally, do sets of mixed questions (of all 3 verbal types, not just CR), and do between 10 and 20 questions total under timed conditions.

Also, for RC, make sure that you are doing only 3 or 4 questions per OG passage. If you do more, you're giving yourself an advantage on later questions that you'll never have on the real thing.

In retrospect, I think I might be a bit burnt out too.

Be careful about this - if you're burned out, you won't learn as well when you're studying, and that's almost wasting your time. Make sure you have one day off a week - no GMAT. That can be the same day or a floating day, whatever you prefer. If, when you sit down to study, you feel totally burned out, first set a timer for 15 minutes and see how you feel at the end of that time. If you're still burned out, then take a break for about an hour and do something that normally helps to give you energy and clear your mind - something physical, ideally (exercise, cooking, cleaning, walking, anything). Then try again. If you're still burned out and not thinking well, then make that day your day off.

[julius.chin]

In math, I think the general pace has always been slower in the first few questions because of settling the nerves. A quick scan would reveal that I am averaging about 2 minutes per question. For some that arent 700-800 level questions, even more. In the end, I ran out of time

Looking at the CAT score review, under timed conditions, I have been getting most of the 600-700 and 700-800 questions wrong. All the wrong ones from 500-600 level are mainly careless mistakes. My goal is to cut that and get as many 600-700 right as I can. I notice that getting 700-800 questions wrong doesn't really hurt the adaptive score much.

That said, is there a way of identifying the really hard questions? The amount of time I spend varies. There are times where I spend well over 2 minutes on an easier question and less than 1 minute on a harder question. The reverse applies as well.

In Verbal, its the reverse, I seem to be going faster and faster. Early on, I am doing 1:15mins per question. Over time, it got down to less than 1min per question.

All the RC questions that I seemed to get were 700-800 level. I of a total of 3 passages, I got one entirely wrong, but I am surprised that it didn't affect me heavily. I find it revealing that towards the last 5 questions, I was doing 40 seconds per question. I got a few of those wrong, so I probably shouldn't rush them given that I have time to spare.

One thing that I find intriguing is that in both vebal and quant sections, towards the 25 - 33 question mark, that is where I get most of my mistakes. It seems like like most of my mistakes are concentrated in that particular region, and it hurt my score most because I have been getting wrong answers consecutively.

I have started using the guides and found most problems with inequalities and number properties.

I pretty much nailed the other 6 guides. This is where I get annoyed with myself because it confirms the view that I know most of the material. I don't know why I underperform, despite the fact that I have the quant and verbal skills to go higher.

Please advise.

Sincere thanks.

[StaceyKoprince]

Okay, so you do have some timing problems and we need to fix those. It can be just as much of a problem to go too fast as it is to go too slowly - going too fast often leads to careless mistakes.

On quant, spend 1min minimum and 2.5m maximum on any question, no matter what. If you finish it in 40 seconds, check your work - just to make sure. You have time to spare. If you ever get anything wrong in the sub 1m15s timeframe, it better be because you knew you had no idea how to do it, so you just made a random guess and moved on. And don't go over about 2.5m even if you think you're going to get it right. Consider this scenario:

I spend 4 min on one problem. Afterwards, I check and I did get the right answer! I'm elated that I got the right answer! I think this proves that I should spend 4 min on one problem sometimes! [I'm wrong - the question can be done in 2 min, so the fact that it took me 4 just means that there's still a really good chance I'd make a mistake or that I got a little lucky when I got it right.]

After I spend 4 min on that one problem, I'm now 2 min behind. I know I need to make up that time. The next time I see a problem I know I can do, I try to do is faster to save that time. I save 30 sec. I do that four more times to save the whole 2 min. Yayy! I'm back on track!! [No, I'm not. Chances are I just got at least one of those questions wrong due to a careless mistake because I was rushing. Maybe I even made two careless mistakes. And those questions were ones that I thought were easier, so chances are they're lower level questions. And it hurts my score more to get a lower-level question wrong. See where this is going?]

And guess what? The above two paragraphs illustrate the best-case scenario. The worst case? I get that 4 min question wrong anyway. I simply run out of time at the end of the test and have to make random guesses. And not just on one question; I've probably had multiple 4 min questions, so I run out of time on a lot of questions at the end. Each time I get one of those wrong, the next one gets easier, and I keep getting them wrong because I don't have time to read them... and then my score gets killed.

So just Don't Do It. :) If you need to spend 3m+ on a problem, that's really an indication that you don't fully know how to do the problem (because there is a 2m solution... but you don't know it).

I think you would also benefit from a timing exercise: learning about how long one minute is without looking at a watch or stopwatch. If you don't have one already, buy yourself a stopwatch with lap timing capability. When you go to do a set of problems, start the stopwatch but turn it over so you can't see the time. Every time you think one minute has gone by, push the lap button. When you're done, see how good you were - and whether you tend to over or underestimate. Get yourself to the point where you're within 15 seconds either way on a regular basis (that is, you can generally predict between 45 sec and 1min 15 sec). Note: at the same time that you are using the stopwatch to time this "1-minute" thing, also use the OG Stopwatch (in your student center) to track the total time spent on each question.

Now, how do you use that when doing problems? If you're not on track by one minute, make an educated guess** and move on. (The general idea is that if you're not on track by the halfway mark, you're unlikely to figure out what's holding you back AND have time to do the whole problem in the 1 min you have left.)

** This also requires you to know HOW to make an educated guess depending upon the type of problem and the content being tested. So that's something else to add to your study: how to make educated guesses on different kinds of problems.

On verbal, your problem is the reverse - you're mostly going way too fast - but you're having a similar outcome: too many careless mistakes on questions you know how to get right. Be more systematic. Are you keeping track of your answer choice eliminations on your scrap paper for every single problem? If not, start doing that. Can you pick up your hand and put your finger on the exact word or set of words that tells you that this choice is wrong? (Or that it's right?) Prove it to yourself - point it out.

That said, is there a way of identifying the really hard questions?

Nope. For two reasons. One, there's just no way for you to tell how the entire pool of test takers would react, on average, to the problem in front of you right now. You're not the entire pool of test takers. Which leads us to reason #2: what matters to you is not how the entire pool of test takers feels but how you feel. If it's easier for you, feel free to take less than the average time as long as you make sure you get it right. Use legitimate shortcuts, but don't cut corners (eg, not write your work down) and possibly cost yourself a question that you know how to do.

And if a question is too hard for you, what could you possibly do even if someone told you, "Oh, that's a lower level question." Not much. :) It's too hard for you, so you deal with it in the same way every time: try to make an educated guess within the average expected timeframe - or a random guess if necessary - and then move on.

You might be interested in this article:
http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/03/ ... n-the-gmat

One thing that I find intriguing is that in both vebal and quant sections, towards the 25 - 33 question mark, that is where I get most of my mistakes. It seems like like most of my mistakes are concentrated in that particular region, and it hurt my score most because I have been getting wrong answers consecutively.

Hmm. Yeah, possibly there's a stamina / concentration problem going on there. Or possibly there's a timing thing.

On quant, possibly that's when you notice that you're a bit behind, and so you start to speed up, and then that kicks up your careless mistakes. Check into the data to see if this might be happening.

On verbal, you mentioned elsewhere that you also tend to speed up as the section goes on, so possibly this is where your timing goes down and again careless errors tick up. Here, you want to be extra-careful about being systematic, as described above.

Make sure you're also eating and drinking "energy food" on your breaks - stuff that will last for the full 75 minutes. (energy food = whole grain, protein, and a little fat)

And, of course, review whatever the data's telling you to review. :) For inequalities and NP, these articles might help:

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/09/ ... t-problems

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/10/ ... es-problem

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/10/ ... ty-problem

And one last note:

All the wrong ones from 500-600 level are mainly careless mistakes. My goal is to cut that and get as many 600-700 right as I can

Exactly! If you want a 700 (or high 600s), you can get all of those 700+ questions wrong and still hit your score. But if you get too many sub-700 (or sub-high-600) questions wrong, there goes your score...

[julius.chin]

Argh!!!
I have been making some good progress with the maths.

But I realize I am weak with the verbal bits.

I did a GMATprep exercise, and still scored even lower than before. These are full simulations.

Again, my performance in GMATprep is not reflective of that in OG.
I am feeling more and more desparate now.

I know all the grammer rules by heart, but it seems like I am missing something...

I recently did question banks, these were timed 50 minute drills. The results were terrible. If there is any consolation, it is that more than half of hte questions were 700-800 questions..

Is it all about adapting to reading on a screen?

I have gone to a point where I don't what is missing. I am feeling increasingly desparate and lost. I want this badly. AHH~ anything beyond 650 is fine. I just lack verbal.

Please advise. I am completely lost.

[StaceyKoprince]

Deep breath! It's good that you've been making progress on quant. You can make progress on verbal, too - promise. :)

The question bank questions are skewed towards more difficult questions. When you say the results were terrible, how terrible? If you only got, say, 40 to 50% of the 700-800 questions right, that's not terrible at all - not if you're going for a 650!

There is an issue for some people of adapting to reading on the screen. For some people, it doesn't seem to matter. Try propping your book up and doing the problems that way. Is it harder than when the book is flat? If so, you may have to practice more under "vertical" conditions.

When the book is flat, do you put a finger over the problem and move it along while you read? Do you ever write or make notes or marks in the book? Stop doing those things. Do only what you can really do on the real test.

You can, though, lift up your finger and put it on the screen. (Just wash your hands after the test. :) Practice doing that with your book propped up.

Are you keeping track of your answers and any notes on separate scrap paper? When you take notes, are the book and scrap paper far enough away from each other that you have to look back and forth - that is, is it more like it's really going to be on the real test? Make it so. :)

Next, let's analyze your performance and really understand what's going on. How was the timing? Did you have some questions wrong simply because you messed up your timing? We're supposed to average about 1m15s on SC. Anything below 45s should either be correct or wrong only because you knew (for some good reason) that you weren't going to get it right, so you guessed quickly. If you make any careless mistakes in less than 45s, you sacrificed that question by going too quickly.

(Note: if you have a careless mistake in normal time, that's not great, but it's to be expected sometimes that you'll make careless mistakes. You want to minimize your chances of making them, though, and one way to minimize those chances is not to work too quickly.)

Did you go over 2m on any problems? That's a no-no, even if you got the problem right. (That time has to come from somewhere, and it's likely to cause a careless mistake later due to speed.)

Use this article to analyze your work with respect to the types of mistakes you made:
http://www.manhattangmat.com/articles/error-log.cfm

Then figure out what you need to do to minimize those types of errors - some things will involve going back to your SC guide, some things will involve practicing your SC process (I've linked to an article on that below), some will involve timing. Don't forget that some might involve fixing timing on things you got right - if that caused you to make mistakes elsewhere.

http://www.beatthegmat.com/mba/2010/06/ ... on-problem